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Do other countries have employer-funded health insurance? Why doesn't my employer pay for, say, my car insurance? This system discourages people from leaving a job to start their own business because private health insurance can be very expensive.

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In the UK, it's not unusual for employers to offer private health insurance (or at least, it's pretty common for profesional jobs - I can't comment for other types of jobs!). From their point of view, it's comparatively inexpensive and the cost is probably easy recouped from their employees being able to get health problems dealt with faster than they might on the NHS so they're off work for less time.

Edit - Given that we've got the NHS as well, losing your private coverage isn't such a big deal. It's nice to have, not a must have.

I had private health insurance from a previous employer, and in my experience it was almost completely pointless. I'm not inclined to rate its provision as a substantial benefit for compensation purposes.

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